See what we’re reading this week at Global Biodefense on topics including cholera vaccines, dose-response models for Q Fever, and establishing an emergency fund for epidemic response.
POLICY, PRACTICES & POLITICS
- Scientists are racing to predict where the next pandemic will start (Verge)
- Ensuring the vital role of sanitation in disease prevention (Contagion Live)
- Robust emergency fund needed to respond to future disease outbreaks (SciAm)
- U.S. now more prepared against Foot-and-Mouth Disease (AG Daily)
- Critical gaps in knowledge of where infectious diseases occur (Phys.org)
- Pandemics and the poor (Brookings)
SELECT AGENTS
- Safe burial practices helped prevent further spread of Ebola in West Africa (VOA)
- Texas Biomed plans new lab to study lethal infections (MySA)
- Development of recombinant Ebola vaccine in midst of an epidemic (SD)
- A human time dose response model for Q Fever (SD)
- A modular high biosafety field laboratory (PLOS NTD)
MEDICAL COUNTERMEASURES
- War-torn Yemen to get cholera vaccines as death toll mounts (US News)
- Further BARDA funding for MediWound’s NexoBrid development (GlobeNewswire)
- Finding the perfect match: a new approach to battle drug-resistant bacteria (Univ of Utah)
- Modified viruses deliver death to antibiotic-resistant bacteria (Nature)
- Butterflies extracts show antibacterial activity (Sci Research Publishing)
- Cell-based flu vaccine hits commercial scale (GEN)
- BARDA expands Basilea’s funding (C&EN)
OUTBREAK NEWS & THREAT SURVEILLANCE
- Kenya cholera outbreak hits dozens at health conference (BBC)
- Another canary in the same coalmine – mild MERS may be bad news (VDU)
- Here are the places where the next pandemics are likely to pop up (CNBC)
- ‘Superbug’ scourge spreads as U.S. fails to track rising human toll (Reuters)
- Polio outbreak expands in Syria, as health officials plan immunization campaign (STAT)
- CDC report shows foodborne botulism poisoning increasing (Food Safety News)
- Study: First Zika microcephaly wave in Brazil was outlier (CIDRAP)
- South Africa reports outbreak of H5N8 bird flu, industry body says (Reuters)
SPECIAL INTEREST
- Speaking with: Peter Doherty about infectious disease pandemics (The Conversation)
- Seqirus flu vax factory in Holly Springs hits another milestone (WRAL)